Cratery

This month, we trade treats with one of hip-hop’s premier producers and a dude I am proud to call a close personal hommrade (part hommie, part comrade): Jake One. A few of you (maybe like 3) might be familiar with some music I did with Jake back in the late 90’s/early 2000’s.  Most of you […]

Very little is known about Toronto record aficionado David Bay. David’s undocumented rise to infamy is based on the records he has procured through countless online portals, particularly eBay – earning him the nickname dBay. Bay, is in fact, not even his last name (I’m starting to question the accuracy of “David” as well). Despite his […]

Alister Johnson AKA Catalist Toronto is full of vinyl nerds. And Cratery gives us the opportunity to connect with some of our favourites. Alister Johnson aka Catalist is DJ, producer and all-around good guy with a shitload of records. Between touring with Grand Analog and composing music for film and television, who knows when Alister […]

We’ve had the good fortune of welcoming some of our more accomplished and talented friends to the monthly dig diary we call Cratery. Da Grassroots alumni Mr. Attic and Murr have both dipped into their vinyl collections on our accord, as has Halifax transplant and DJ, Skratch Bastid. This month, we’re joined by another Toronto […]

Both the hommie Kaewonder and I recently spent some time on the left coast. This month’s Cratery represents the fruits of our visit. I love shopping for records in a different town. Especially when that town is Vancouver. I was fortunate enough to stumble across a copy of J.R. Bailey’s “Just me and you”, Nina […]

So. I grew a beard for four months. Then I cut it off. But not without having some fun with a few of the hommies first. Gotta shout my mans Clif, Darren G and my man Joe Cruz for lining me up nicely at the official De-Bearding. And my man Serious aka David Yan for […]

“And we’re back. Almost a year and a half into our monthly dig diary with no signs of slowing. This month, the hommie Kaewonder and I return with a genre-bending hour of Caribbean Funk, Sweet Soul, Folk-Psych, Spiritual Jazz and Brazilian Rock. None of which we downloaded off the Internet. But hey, that shouldn’t stop […]

The arrival of Cratery 15 signals two things: 1. An official Cratery logo + design. 2. A brand new format for this month. First off, a big thank you to Sean Davison (Creative Director, Maclaren McCann) for helping us bring our monthly dig diary to life with its own logo + look. Hope y’all like […]

The OST Bonus It’s not quite a sequel – but the bonus session is a little 25-minute extra we thought you might enjoy. By that time, the idea of writing a track list had taken a back seat to the sedentary effects of our friend Century Sam. Hell, if someone decided to make a film […]

The OST Edition I’m a sucker for a good soundtrack. The covers alone are usually worth the price of admission. Composers often take experimental liberties they would never take while working on a conventional pop record. And some of the best gems can be found on tiny little one minute transitional tracks – as in […]

(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED) No explanation for why this session never came out. But this soul-inspired episode was intended as bonus to Cratery 13. We ended up distributing it to a few friends privately and kind of lost track of it. Either way, opening bangers from the Bar-Kays, Luther Ingram and the Natural Four pretty good reason […]

“Cratery thirteen. As is quite often the case with Cratery, we go all over the map with a variety of heat . Starting off with the straight boom bap of Cuba Instrumentals face-scruncher “Quema”, to Barbara & Ernie’s blissed-out “For You”. From Common (People) records, to Saverage White Band (no, that is not a typo) […]

We did it. Kaewonder and I have successfully maintained our dig diary, Cratery for 1 whole year. And what better way to round out the year than with the hommie DJ Serious? Serious has been a mainstay on the DJ/Production (and now photography!) front in Toronto for quite some time now. Since his early days […]

Kae and I are both Sagittarians with savage qualities. Qualities which I won’t mention here – but definitely the kind worthy of celebrating. Cratery 11 coincides with both of our birthdays in the final week of November. So we thought it might be fitting to pull out 11 personal favourites each – records that we […]

More Cratery Baby. My mans Kaewonder and I have successfully managed to run our monthly dig diary for 10 months without running out of records. I’d say that kind of dedication is worth something awesome – like another free hour of funk on us. Cratery 10 starts off with some Modern Soul/Boogie bangers: some of […]

(The 90 Minute Joint) For the 9th installment of our monthly dig diary, the hommie Kaewonder and I took it back. The contents of Cratery 9 were recorded entirely on a 90 minute cassette. Don’t ask why. Don’t ask how. Simply reacquaint yourself with some good old-fashioned tape hiss while Kae and I go 3 […]

CRATERY 8a f/ Skratch Bastid a.k.a Eightery You would not believe the hard work that goes into getting drunk, smoked out and playing premium musical selections for your listening pleasure on a monthly basis. This month, Kaewonder and I were lucky enough secure Montreal DJ and record aficionado Skratch Bastid simply by forcing him to […]

“A busted amp and a broken car engine led myself and the hommie Kaewonder from the heart of Queen West to the outskirts of Sauga Sec on this month’s edition of Cratery. My neck of the woods, people. Big up Butch and Tink from The Rockbox – the same studio where Marvel and I recorded […]

Over the years, self-indulgent record collectors have made a habit of promoting the rare over the good. The imitators over the originators. And of course, the expensive over the cheap. And the But the good people at Cratery (read: us) know where the heat is at. We give you Dollarate (from root word “Dollaration”), our […]

This month’s Cratery is proof the weather’s getting a little hotter. And we’ve got the tunes to match: A little dub, reggae, rare groove, disco, funk and some good old fashioned soul music. The Lowrell record we both hold in our hands wasn’t some drunken attempt at comedy either – it embodies the spirit of […]